Sensitivity training: I have a knife and you have a gun

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

I am curious what Frances Hocutt believes sensitivity training can achieve? Is it an appropriate tool for changing a culture?

I wanted to lead a research team and solve pressing problems in medicine, energy, or the environment while treating my employees fairly. I thought about being able to hire people like my incredibly competent but PhD-less co-worker into management roles. I thought about instituting management and diversity training for PhD-level chemists. I thought about inviting some of the women who are rising stars of organic synthesis to come speak and consult. I fantasized about having the power to stop the company from repeatedly bringing in the consultant who had graduated zero female PhD students out of his last twenty, who had reputedly reduced at least one employee to tears as she presented her work, and whom I heard joke about “finishing up some chromatography” (chromatography is a purification technique that usually involves flushing a quantity of liquid through a long, narrow column) when we paused our consulting session for a bathroom break.

The word “training” suggests that the problems described exist because someone lacks some important skill, and thus can be “trained”. That seems optimistic to me. If you are in the middle of a power struggle, is there anything that training can do? If I have a knife, but you have a gun, should insist that you go for sensitivity training, or should I attempt to acquire a gun?

Post external references

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    http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/i-didn-t-want-to-lean-out
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